I am happy today !

Because lexi is Star student this week and I am taking her a special lunch at school and eating it with her.
Because Myka and I made a fort out of blankets and pillows and then we played Polly pockets in it .
Because tonight is the Flourish women's conference at my AWESOME church. last years was life changing for me. I was at a rough place in life and i remember driving home late at night literally screaming at God. I know it sounds wrong to scream at God.

But I was... hes cool with it.

I screamed out my heart to God and he listened. Boy oh boy did he listen.i want you all to picture the magnitude of screaming i did here. I'm talking I shook my fists and pounded on my steering wheel. I was crying so hard my chest was heaving.

When i came home and walked in the door. Things were better. I wont go into detail , but they were better.

Now I m at a different point in life. I have different crossroads. But I am waiting to hear from god. this time I will do the listening.

The weather is cooling down here and that makes me all sorts of happy inside. A few days ago Lexi and her BFF were outside giving eachother pedicures. It was so cute.And Myka was in the thick of it.
She thinks she is a big kid.

i heart faces

I heart I heart faces. This weeks them was beach pictures. This pic is from this summer. She was so scared to go in the water. But her Daddy took her by the hand and promised to keep her safe. I jumped in front of them to take a picture and then out of nowhere a huge wave came and almost knocked me over.

But her daddy kept her by the hand. And was good on his promise.

She was safe.

I snapped this right as the wave was about to hit. The look on her face is just priceless.

Happy Monday !

lunchtime on Tuesday

Sometimes I avoid blogging because i have nothing profound to say. Not that when I do blog i am profoundy sounding or anything . But I like to have a point ya know.

But today as I was watching Myka finish up her lunch I took out my camera and snapped a few pics. And I really like them .


I need to remember these moments.
cherish them.


She is two years old now. And it will go by fast .

(are all two year olds this messy?)
My ten year old reminds me of that everyday.having kids who were all born in August is emotional overload. No mom should have to go through her babies growing up all at the same time. I guess moms with twins deal with this. If you are reading this and you have twins you will have to let me know if it is double the emotion.

My futures so bright............

I have to wear shades.

Seriously, I love this girl. See more shades at over at I heart faces.

Christmas in July .

San Diego was simply wonderful. My husbands grandparents were AMAZING hosts as usual. And my fourth of July was the best I have had in years.

I have many, many, many, pictures to share with you all.

But onto more important things.

It is time for a GIVEAWAY !! if you follow me on my facebook then you know about a week go I looked at my number of "likes" and thought "I want more people to like me".

Hey I am co-dependent . I'm ok with it. But only if you will all promise to still like me k :).

I promised that if the number of likes got to 300 that I would do a giveaway. And I am a girl of my word so on the road trip home from San Diego i cooked up a fun little contest for you all.

here's the 411

The contest is called Christmas in July because the prize will be a FREE holiday photo session with yours truly. You and up too 7 people you call family will meet me at a location of your choice in the month of October. We will sing, laugh, dance , maybe share a hot dog or two......
oh.... and we will take pictures. Lots of pictures. And then i will go home and edit those pictures and give them to you on a cd. You will get 20-25 pictures to be exact. And you may print them wherever you would like because thats how I roll. You will also receive 25 awesome unique Christmas cards to send to all your loved ones with your favorite pose from our session. This is a $200.00 dollar value folks.

how to enter

I thought long and hard about the kind of photo people should enter for the contest. And since it is a free family session I think the cutest family photo should win it. So e mail me at laurenkenna@gmail.com your favorite family snapshot. The picture must be of your whole family. that can be so many different things. It can be you and your dog. A husband and wife, a mom dad and 5 kids. I just want to see the people you love and would want photographed.
And since there is no way i can pick the cutest family picture I will let the world of social net working decide. After you email me the pic I will upload it to my my laurenjean photography fan page on facebook. Tell all your friends and family to come vote for your pic. The contest starts NOW and goes until midnight July 31st. people may comment on your pic but only "likes" count as votes. remember the sooner you enter the more chance you have to get votes.

the fine print

The pictures may not be professional.Even if laurenjean photography took them. They must be snapshots. The free session must be used in the month of October.The picture must include everyone that will be photographed in the session. So you may have to ask your neighbor to grab a pic of everyone before dinner one night. The pictures will be posted on facebook within 24 hours of when I receive them. No tagging your pics. People need to visit my page to vote.

i am so EXCITED !!!
After the contest i will start booking sessions for Christmas pictures. I have already had people contact me about holiday pictures . Spaces will go fast!!!

I will write a post later about our fourth of July fun. but for now. Here is my new favorite pic EVER !!

I wonder where she gets it from ??

Untitled from kennagurls on Vimeo.

We call daddy at work at least once a day. Myka babbles on and on to him. Its adorable.



In other news I am so excited for the next few weeks to come. From July 3rd through July 8th I will be in San Diego , CA. I will be sticking my toes in the warm sand and taking about 10,000 pictures of my lovelies on the beach. I am so excited to spend time with my husbands grandparents while we are there . Herb and Helen are so sweet. I would love to do a few sessions in Cali while I am there. The summer special is $150.00 and that includes a one hour session for up too 7 people and a cd of all your images that you may print wherever you would like. E mail me at laurenkenna@gmail.com or leave a comment with your e mail address and the day and time you are interested in.

Once we get back from CA , Me and the little girls will be heading to Cheese country and corn land. ( Illinois and Wisconsin ) I will be there from July 13th through July 26th. I am also booking sessions in that area as well. Same special. E mail me laurenkenna@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

I hope I am able to book lots of sessions. I would love to travel more and take pictures of fabulous families all over the world !!

Happy late fathers day !

i hope every guy reading this ( ok, i hope every woman who has a great guy in her life reading this) had a WONDERFUL fathers day. This post is a little late and for that I am sorry. But I have sorted out and processed a lot of feelings about fathers day over the years and tonight i said to myself Why not hash out all my feelings on the internet for the whole world to see.

Sounds like a plan !

This is my dad


handsome huh :)

Ok, so obviously I am not genetically related to a sculpture. But That statue represents the idea in my head I have of my Dad. As most of you know my dad passed away when I was a little girl. He was diagnosed with Lymphomia when I was six . He fought hard for four years. But God called him home the summer after we moved to Arizona. I was just ten years old. After My dad passed away my mom and I were at the mall when she spotted this statue in a store window. I remember watching her eyes well up with tears as she stared at the image of the firefighter in front of her. MY dad, the man she was deeply , madly, passionately in love with was a fire fighter before he got sick. My mom has told me that he was tall and handsome. That he was brave and kind. In that moment standing outside that window she saw her emotions in a work of art. She bought the statue and has kept it for 16 years now.

today was special.

As she prepares to move into a new phase of her life my mom passed the statue on to me. The timing is really appropriate.I am a adult now. I able to get through
fathers day with only a small lump in my throat. I think time has been a wonderful healer and of course I am comforted by the fact that I have a father in heaven who is king of kings and lord of lords. So I am a princess and all....

Oh and of course THIS GUY helps........



This is the guy who has been in love with me since seventh grade. The guy who I lost touch with for over five years after high school and I still managed to marry. This is the guy who is father to all three of my daughters even if only one shares his dna.

He makes me laugh. He is the smartest man I have ever met. He works full time ( more actually) and he is in school full time.

And he makes the worlds best eggs. Just ask anyone who has been to my house for breakfast on a Saturday morning.

I love my husband with all my heart. He is a great Dad. He needs like a apron with those words written on it. Next year honey , I promise.

ok,

sorry for the gush. i am normally not a gusher.

but it felt appropriate.

I will leave you a few pictures of our fabulous photogenic family on fathers day.
And a big shout out to Grampy Renny. Ashlynn thinks your the coolest.


Love You Aunt Meghan. And your necklace is so pretty.



and just in case you need to see a cute baby today

Why did you name her Myka ????

I was not one of those women who loved being pregnant. In fact I loathe it. Most women get these cute little bellies that look like they swallowed basketballs. I got a wide a** and a puffy face. When I found out I was pregnant with number three I belonged to a online forum of moms who were all due around the same time. It was cute how the first time moms took pictures week by week of their ever cutely expanding basketball bellies. But I had to laugh at the thought of doing that myself. My belly was a pile of extra skin and the two tacos I had for lunch. Nothing cute there people. Move along, no seriously, MOVE ALONG !!!
I was barfy for the entire nine months. And not the kind of barfy that eating a few crackers would help. I was zapped of energy and moody ( just ask my poor husband) No sir, me and pregnancy do not mix.
But in the midst of the barfing, weight gain , and mood swings there was one day I always looked forward to ( besides my due date). It was the day we got to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Imagine my shock and horror when the clearly inept ultra sound tech told me not with one child but with TWO pregnancies that they couldn't tell the sex of the baby !!!! The first time it happened with my oldest daughter I left in tears. Swearing up and down that I didn't care I just wanted to know ( total lie, I wanted a baby girl ). But , I was trying to be all mature about things.
My second daughter I was told had spina bifida. So I had lots of fancy high tech ultra sounds. We knew early on she was a girl. And she was FINE :) ( dont get me started on all the tests they insist on putting poor pregnant mommies through).
So my last pregnancy i waited patiently for the day of my ultra sound. My hubby took the day off work, and I filled my bladder to the brim with water. There was no way I was leaving that appointment without knowing the sex of that baby.
But, that baby had other plans. That baby wanted to close its legs and open them for no one. We tried for almost a hour. When i insisted i stand on my head to see if that would put the baby in a better position the ultra sound tech kicked us out of her room.


I was heartbroken.

So that night when we sat down to discuss names we both agreed that we wanted a biblical name. We opened our bible and started looking. As we looked we talked about what we wanted for our child. We knew that we wanted above all for our child to love God and love others. We wanted our child to be a world changer, to be a voice for those without one.
Then my husband remembered this verse......

Micah 6:8 (New International Version)

8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

And that was it. Boy or girl the baby would be Micah. When little miss Myka came into the world we did change the spelling. I think it sounds more girly. My husband thinks I'm nuts. But he went with it. I know she has some high expectations on her. But I think she looks like a world changer !! A clean one :)